JPH0877185A - Method of controlling page turning of electronic publication reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] The purpose is to speed up the switching of screen display contents regardless of whether or not additional information is input. [Arrangement] A memory 25 that can be shared by the first to third tasks T1 to T3 is provided, and the first task T1 writes additional write information Dad to the memory and displays new data from the memory in response to the input of a page turning instruction command. The page information D is read and transferred to the display unit 60, and in parallel with this, the second task T2
When a request is made to read out a display candidate page that is the next page or the previous page of the new display page and the additional information in the unsaved state exists in the memory,
The task T3 is requested to store the additional write information, the second task reads the information of the display candidate page from the storage medium and writes it in the memory in response to the request, and the third task reads the additional write information from the memory in response to the request. Write to the storage medium.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a page turning control method for an electronic publication reproducing apparatus. In recent years, information called electronic publishing has been digitized, and storage media (magneto-optical disks, CDROMs, etc.) containing various books and newspapers have been commercialized. The digitized information includes sentences, pictures, moving images, sounds, and the like.

To reproduce such electronic publications, a personal computer system equipped with a display or a dedicated reproducing apparatus is used. Then, in these reproducing devices, a write-once function is realized which enables a user to add arbitrary information such as an underline or a note like a paper medium.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, computerized information is stored in a storage medium in a storage format such as character code data and compressed image data. Therefore, at the time of reproducing information (screen display), the target information is read from the storage medium in a predetermined unit and developed into display format bitmap data on the video RAM (VRAM). Then, the contents of the VRAM are displayed on the dot matrix screen in parallel with the bitmap expansion or after the expansion of one page is completed.

When the user presses the next page key or the previous page key as a page turning operation, the information of a new display page which is the next page or the previous page of the current display page is read from the storage medium, and the bit is read. It is displayed on the screen after the map is expanded.

When reading information from the storage medium is triggered by the page turning operation, the time required for turning the page exceeds the sum of the access time of the storage medium and the bit map development time. The display contents (pages) are switched slowly. For this reason, it is impossible to realize so-called flipping, in which pages are switched one after another in terms of user's feeling of use, and the usability of the playback device is impaired.

Therefore, in the past, as a method of speeding up page turning, by storing information of all pages in a display medium in advance in a storage medium, there is no need for bit map expansion, and in all of the display formats. A method of loading page information from a storage medium to a high-speed main memory (semiconductor memory) has been proposed.

In the present specification, a page is a storage unit of computerized information in a storage medium, and means the amount of information for one screen in display.

[0008]

However, in a device capable of additional recording, even if the information is stored in a display format, when the page is turned, the additional information input before the switching of the display and the additional information input before it are switched. Since the stored contents have to be updated by writing, the page turning speed becomes slower when the user makes an additional write as compared to the case where the user does not make an additional write, and overall usability cannot be expected.

Further, if the information of all pages is loaded from the storage medium into the semiconductor memory, the speed can be greatly increased, but it is not realistic in terms of memory capacity. For example 100
To load the full-color image information of a page, it is necessary to provide a screen size of 640 × 480 dots and a memory of 30 Mbytes.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to speed up switching of screen display contents regardless of whether or not additional write information is input.

[0011]

According to the method of the invention of claim 1, the computerized information is read from the storage medium and is displayed on the screen page by page, and the information input during the display is added to the display page. In the electronic publication reproducing apparatus for storing as, a first task, a second task, and a third task are provided as processing tasks, and a memory that can be shared by these three tasks is provided. In response to the input of the command to instruct, the additional write information is written in the memory, in response to the input of the command to instruct page turning, the information of the new display page is read from the memory and transferred to the display unit, At the same time, the second task is requested to read out a display candidate page that is the next page or the previous page of the new display page, and the previous page is not saved. When the additional write information exists in the memory, the third task requests the third task to save the additional write information, and the second task responds to the request from the first task to display the display candidate page. The computerized information is read from the storage medium and written to the memory, and the third task reads the unsaved additional write information from the memory and writes it to the storage medium in response to a request from the first task. This is a page turning control method for writing.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first task, when the command for instructing page turning is input during the reading by the second task, the second task is executed.
After instructing the task to stop the reading, the reading of the display candidate page is requested, and the information of the new display page written halfway by the second task is read from the memory and transferred to the display unit. Later, the remaining part of the information of the new display page is read from the storage medium and transferred to the display unit, and the second task:
It is a page-turning control method for stopping reading of information from the storage medium according to an instruction of the first task.

[0013]

[Operation] In parallel with the page turning instruction, multitasking parallel processing is performed. That is, the information prepared in the memory is transferred to the display unit by the first task, and the information of the pages before and after the display page is read from the storage medium and prepared as a display candidate in the memory by the second task. The additional write information is written in the recording medium by the third task.

When the page turning is instructed before the preparation by the second task is completed, the first task takes over the reading of the information during the preparation from the second task, and the second task immediately starts the new preparation.

[0015]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a control method of the present invention, FIG.
3 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of the electronic book reproducing apparatus 1, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a main part of the electronic book reproducing apparatus 1.

In FIG. 2, the electronic book reproducing apparatus 1 has a CP
U10, a main memory 20 for storing programs including an OS having a multitask function, a storage medium 30, a memory driver 40 for accessing the storage medium 30, a tablet 50 as an operation input means, and a display unit 60. ing.

The display unit 60 includes a liquid crystal display (LCD) 61 for color display, a display driver 62, and a video RAM (VRA) for expanding bitmap data.
M) 65 and the like. Display driver 62
Reproduces an image virtually drawn in the VRAM 60 on the LCD 61 by bitmap expansion.

The storage medium 30 is composed of a magneto-optical disk 31 and a hard disk 32. The magneto-optical disk 31 has text and images (photos and illustrations).
The digitized information (electronic book) of multicolored books consisting of
It is stored as original information along with the index. The hard disk 32 is used to store additional write information.

As shown in FIG. 3, in the electronic book reproducing apparatus 1, the tablet 5 is superimposed on the display screen of the LCD 61.
0 is arranged. The operator (user) performs a handwriting operation in which a desired page of the electronic book is opened, that is, a page of digitized information is displayed, and the tip of the touch pen 55 is lightly pressed against the display screen to slide. Additions such as enclosing words and phrases and adding characters can be made. The additional write information is displayed in real time overlaid on the original information of the electronic book, and then written in the hard disk 32.

Further, the user can turn pages by using the next page button Z1 and the previous page button Z2. That is, when the user presses the next page button Z1, the information of the next page of the page being displayed is displayed,
When the previous page button Z2 is pressed, information on the previous page of the page being displayed is displayed. If the next page button Z1 or the previous page button Z2 is kept pressed, the displayed pages are switched one after another. When a page on which additional writing has been performed before is opened, the additional information on the page is displayed together with the original information.

As shown in FIG. 1, the page turning function has three tasks T1 to T3 and these tasks T1 to T3.
And a page memory 25, which is a shared memory of.

The page memory 25 is, for example, the main memory 20.
It is provided inside and is used for temporary storage and management of information (usually 3 pages) read from the storage medium 30. The data structure of the page memory 25 will be described later.

When a command Cad for instructing additional writing is input from the tablet 50, the first task (hereinafter referred to as "parent task") T1 is additional writing information (coordinates of the pen touch position) Dad which is input at the same time as the command Cad. Is written in the page memory 25. At this time, the additional information Dad
Is written in the memory area of the page memory 25 allocated to the page being displayed (display page), and immediately expanded into a bitmap for display. The parent task T1 is also responsible for developing the bitmap of the additional write information Dad.

As a command for instructing page turning,
For example, when the command CZ1 instructing the display of the next page is input, the parent task T1 reads the information of a new display page from the page memory 25 and transfers it to the display unit 60,
At the same time, the second task (hereinafter referred to as "reading task") T2 is requested to read the display candidate page which is the next page of the new display page. When the display of the previous page is instructed, the reading of the previous page of the new display page is requested. Then, if the additional recording information Dad in the unsaved state exists in the page memory 25, the parent task T1 requests the third task (hereinafter, referred to as “storing task”) T3 to store the additional recording information Dad. To do.

On the other hand, the read task T2 is the parent task T1.
In response to the read request from, the information of the display candidate page is read from the storage medium 30 and written in the page memory 25. In other words, prepare for the next page turn. The save task T3 responds to the save request from the parent task T1,
The additional recording information Dad in the unsaved state is read from the page memory 25 and written in the storage medium 30. That is, post-processing of display is performed.

When a command for instructing page turning is input during the reading of display candidate pages by the read task T2, the parent task T1 cancels the read task T2 (forced termination). Give instructions. The reading task T2 stops reading according to the instruction. After that, the parent task T1 requests the read task T2 to read a new display candidate page, reads the information of the new display page that has already been written halfway by the read task T2 from the page memory 25, and sends it to the display unit 60. Transfer the remaining portion of the information on the new display page to the storage medium 3
It is read from 0 and transferred to the display unit 60.

As described above, in the electronic book reproducing apparatus 1, since the pages before and after the new display page are read from the storage medium 30 in parallel with the display of the new display page, the page turning instruction is given. The switching of the display becomes quicker than in the case where the reading of a new display page is started in response. In addition, the save task T3 has the additional information Dad.
The parent task T1 can concentrate on displaying a new display page, and can avoid delaying page turning due to additional recording.

Hereinafter, the parent task T1, the read task T2,
The function of the save task T3 will be described in more detail. FIG. 4 is a data configuration diagram of the page memory 25.

The page memory 25 is composed of at least three memory areas Ai assigned to each page. The additional write information Dad, the original information D such as characters and figures, the management table MT, and the page flag FP are written in each memory area Ai.

The page flag FP has four values as shown in Table 1 and indicates a read state of one page of information (original information D and additional write information Dad) from the storage medium 30.

[0031]

[Table 1]

The "no data" state in which the FP value is "0" means that the display page is the last page or the first page and the next page or the previous page does not exist, or it is due to some factor. The information has not been read at all.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the contents of the management table MT. The management table MT is provided for grouping and managing one page of digitized information. The items of the management table MT are the information type KIND, the coordinates XY of the head position of each group, the vertical length LV, the horizontal length LH,
A file name file indicating a location in the storage medium 30, a read flag FR indicating a read state from the storage medium 30,
And a write flag F indicating the state of writing to the storage medium 30.
W. In the example of FIG. 5, the digitized information is grouped into two pieces of image information, sound information, text (sentence) information, and additional write information. When the sound information is included, a voice icon is displayed on the screen. The user can perform a predetermined operation in a timely manner to hear the sound.

The read flag FR is set to "1" when the reading is completed, and is set to "0" before the reading. The write flag FW is set to "0" when there is no additional writing, and is set to "1" when there is additional writing. In addition, the write flag FW is “2” during the storage process of the additional write information Dad.
It is said.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the functional arrangement of the parent task T1. The parent task T1 is an inter-task communication unit 101 that communicates with other tasks, a command receiving unit 102 that receives an operation input, a command analysis unit 103 that determines the operation content, a write-once processing unit 104, a display processing unit 105, and a current task. It has a display page management unit 106 that points a display page, a memory table 107 that associates a page number with an address of the page memory 25, and a bitmap expansion unit 108.

The additional write processing unit 104 sets the write flag FW to "1" in response to the input of the command Cad instructing the additional write, writes the additional write information Dad input in pixel units into the page memory 25, and at the same time, in real time. In order to display the additional write state, the additional write information Dad is transferred to the bitmap expansion unit 108.

The display processing unit 105 uses the other tasks T2 and T3.
It is responsible for general processing including requests to the storage medium and direct reading from the storage medium 30. The bitmap expansion unit 108 converts the information to be displayed into a bitmap format and converts it to the VRAM 6
Transfer to 5.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the functional arrangement of the read task T2. The read task T2 is the parent task T1.
Inter-task communication unit 201 that is in charge of communication with the read task unit 20 that reads information of display candidate pages from the storage medium 30
2. The bitmap expansion unit 203 that converts the information D and Dad of the display candidate page into the bitmap format and writes the bitmap information into the page memory 25, and the management table MT of the management table MT every time the writing of the information of each group on the display candidate page is completed. It has a flag processing unit 204 for setting the read flag FR to "1".

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the functional arrangement of the save task T3. The storage task T3 includes an inter-task communication unit 301 that communicates with the parent task T1, and a page memory 2
The additional recording information Dad in 5 is converted into the storage format and the storage medium 3
It has a write processing unit 302 for transferring to 0.

[First Page Open] When the program starts, first, the parent task T1 creates a read task T2 and a save task T3. Memory area A for 3 pages including display page and pages before and after it
i is secured as the page memory 25, and the page number and the corresponding start address of the memory area Ai are registered in the memory table 107 of the parent task T1. Storage medium 3
The page information is read from 0 for all pages and stored in the main memory 20. The page information of each page is a combination of information types (page configuration), display position for each type,
It is an identifier or the like indicating the location in the storage medium 30. Then, the page information of the corresponding page is written in the management table MT of each page in the page memory 25.

The page opened first, that is, the display page at the start of use, is the page opened last when the user used the electronic book reproducing apparatus 1 last time. However, if this use is the first time or the use history information is lost (initialized), the first display page is the first page of the electronic book.

All information is displayed for the first display page. That is, page turning is prohibited until the display of one page is completed. The parent task T1
While referring to the management table MT, the display page N
Information of pages (pages of page number N) is sequentially read from the storage medium 30 for each type, written in the page memory 25, expanded in bitmap, and transferred to the VRAM 65. At this time, every time the reading of the information of one type KIND is completed, the read flag FR of the management table MT.
Is set to "1 (read)", and the value of the type KIND is "0".
(Data end) ”and the reading and display of all information is completed, the page flag FP is set to“ 1 ”.

When the N page is neither the first page nor the last page, the page flag FP corresponding to the (N + 1) page which is the display candidate page on the rear side is set to "2 ( “Reading)”, and requests the read task T2 to read (N + 1) pages. At this time, the read task T2 is notified of the address of the memory area Ai allocated to the (N + 1) page.

The read task T2 reads the (N + 1) page information from the storage medium 30 in order for each type in the same manner as the above-described read by the parent task T1, and the page memory 25
Write in. At this time, every time the reading of the information of one kind KIND is completed, the read flag FR is set to “1 (read completed)” and the presence / absence of the forced termination notification from the parent task T1 is checked. When there is no forced end notification and the reading of all information is completed, the page flag FP is set to "1" and the parent task T1 is notified of the end of reading.

In response to the reception of the read end notification from the read task T2, the parent task T1 first sets the page flag FP of the (N + 1) th page for which the read has been completed to "1". Subsequently, it is checked whether or not the page flag FP is “0” or “3” indicating that reading is necessary for the (N−1) th page which is the display candidate page on the front side. Here, since the page flag FP is "0", (N-1)
The page flag FP of the page is set to "2", and the read task T2 is requested to read the (N-1) page. The page flag FP of the (N-1) th page is also set to "1" by the read task T2 when the read is completed.

If N page is the last page,
Reading of the (N + 1) th page is omitted. Further, when the Nth page is the first page, the reading of the (N-1) th page is omitted.

[Page Turning] Here, page turning to the rear side, that is, page turning from the Nth page to the next (N + 1) th page, is performed. When the display page is the final page, the operation for instructing the page turning to the rear side is substantially invalid.

When the display processing of N pages is completed, the parent task T
When 1 is in a command input waiting state, the LCD 61
In, the screen display of N pages is held. When the user performs page turning operation in this state, the parent task T
The management table MT of the (N-1) page is checked, and if the write flag FW contains "2 (during storage)", the additional write information D in the page memory 25 is in the unsaved state.
Since there is an ad, a memory area A for one page is newly added.
secure i. Since the new display page after the page turning is the (N + 1) page, the newly secured memory area Ai corresponds to the (N + 2) page which is the next page of the display page.

All (N-1) page write flags F
If W is “0” or “1”, the parent task T allocates the memory area Ai of the (N−1) page that is not a display candidate to the (N + 2) page that is a new display candidate.

Thereafter, the parent task T, as described above,
The information of the (N + 1) page already written in the page memory 25 by the read task T2 is displayed on the display unit 60 as V.
The data is sent to the RAM 65, and in parallel with this, the read task T2 is requested to read (N + 2) pages in the same procedure as the first page opening. When additional writing is performed on the N page, the save task T3 is notified of the address of the memory area Ai of the N page and requested to save the additional write information Dad.

Here, a new display page (N +
1) When there is a page turning instruction in the middle of displaying a page, the parent task T immediately cancels the display and sets the page flag FP of the (N + 1) page to “3 (stop reading)”,
The memory area Ai is allocated to the (N + 3) page.

If the page flag FP of the (N + 2) page, which is a new display page, is "2 (reading)", the parent task T notifies the read task T2 of the forced termination of the read, and again ( N + 3) Request to read page. Then, the information of the (N + 2) page that has been read halfway is sent to the VRAM 65, and while referring to the management table MT, the remaining information of the (N + 2) page is read from the storage medium 30 and sent to the VRAM 65. The additional write operation is invalid during the execution of these processes. When the display of the (N + 2) page is finished, the parent task T sets the page flag FP of the (N + 2) page to “1 (reading completed)”.

The parent task T1 responds to the reception of the write end notification from the save task T3, and the write flag F in the management table MT of the page for which writing has been completed.
Return W to "0". If the write end page is neither the display page nor the display candidate page, the memory area Ai allocated to the page in the page memory 25 is released.

According to the above embodiment, the read task T2
However, when reading one page, one type KIND
Since the presence / absence of the forced termination notification from the parent task T1 is checked every time the reading of the information is completed, the timing of stopping the reading according to the forced termination notification is earlier than that in the case where the check is performed after the completion of the reading of one page. It is possible to realize quicker flipping of images.

In the above-described embodiment, the order of reading the display candidates in the first page opening is not limited to the order of the next page and the previous page of the display page, but may be the reverse order. As a write-once function, in addition to or instead of handwriting, it is possible to insert characters by keyboard input or the like. The recordable range may be limited to a part of one page. In addition, the hardware configuration of the electronic book reproducing apparatus 1, the content of digitized information, the information storage format, the amount of information, the data configuration of the page memory 25, the flag setting, and each task T
The functional configurations of 1 to 3 can be appropriately changed within the scope of the gist of the present invention.

[0056]

According to the inventions of claim 1 and claim 2,
It is possible to speed up the switching of the screen display contents regardless of whether or not the additional write information is input.

According to the invention of claim 2, the practicality of the electronic publication reproducing apparatus can be further enhanced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a control method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of an electronic book reproducing apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a main part of the electronic book reproducing apparatus 1.

FIG. 4 is a data configuration diagram of a page memory.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the contents of a management table.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a parent task.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a read task.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a save task.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Electronic Book Reproducing Device (Electronic Publication Reproducing Device) 25 Page Memory (Memory) 30 Storage Medium 60 Display Part D Original Information (Electronic Information) Dad Additional Information T1 Parent Task (First Task) T2 Read Task (Second Task) ) T3 save task (third task) Cad Command to instruct additional writing CZ1 Command to instruct page turning

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An electronic publication reproducing apparatus for reading out digitized information from a storage medium, displaying it page by page on a screen, and storing the information inputted during display as additional information of a display page, as a processing task. A first task, a second task, and a third task are provided, and a memory that can be shared by these three tasks is provided. The first task responds to the input of a command instructing the additional writing, and the additional information is added. In the memory, and in response to the input of the command for instructing page turning, the information of the new display page is read from the memory and transferred to the display unit. If a request is made to read a display candidate page that is the next page or the previous page of the display page and the additional information in the unsaved state exists in the memory. The third task requests the third task to store the additional write information, and the second task reads the information of the display candidate page from the storage medium in response to the request from the first task. Writing to the memory, and the third task, in response to a request from the first task, reads the unsaved additional write information from the memory and writes the additional write information to the storage medium. Page turning control method for equipment. 2. The first task displays the display after instructing the second task to stop the reading when the command for instructing page turning is input during the reading by the second task. After requesting the reading of the candidate page and reading the information of the new display page written halfway by the second task from the memory and transferring to the display unit, the remaining portion of the information of the new display page 2. The electronic publication according to claim 1, wherein the second task stops reading information from the storage medium according to an instruction of the first task, and reads the information from the storage medium and transfers the information to the display unit. Page-turning control method for object recycling device.